socialmedian: Olympus E-P1 PEN Review

User-submitted headlines for this story

Clip

Olympus E-P1 PEN Review

Source: The Online Photographer

Jul 22, 2009

Summary

By Ken Tanaka

If you’re at all attuned to camera news you are well aware of Olympus’s new PEN E-P1 camera. This 12.3 megapixel Micro Four-Thirds camera has stirred up quite a bit of excitement since its concept design was previewed at the 2008 Photokina. Olympus's own tagline has done much to ignite curiosity: "Not a compact. Not an SLR. It's a PEN."

The Pen E-P1 commemorates the 50th anniversary of Olympus's Pen series of half-frame 35mm cameras. These small, modestly-priced amateur/travel/family cameras, manufactured from 1959 to 1966, were quite popular in the period just before the single-lens reflex camera design consumed the market. Oly reportedly sold over 17 million PENs so I would imagine that they're hoping for similar success with the digital version.

Sentimentality aside, the main practical question for most people is whether or not Olympus's new PEN is a serious camera and not just a retro-styled toy. My answer is yes, the E-P1 is an earnest and versatile camera that can be fun to use. But it's also a camera with a few noteworthy shortcomings.